He hid not his face from shame and spitting

"When I give my word, I stick to it, and I'm definitely going to organize with the Senate Democratic caucus," Joseph Lieberman told a Boston Globe reporter yesterday. Playing upon the slogan of his Energizer-Bunny re-election campaign -- "Stick with Joe" -- Tuesday night at his Goodwin Hotel victory party the Connecticut Senator quipped that the love of his life and mother of his children, Hadassah -- "even before Al Gore made me his running mate, you made me the luckiest guy in the world" -- had sometimes complained that she was STUCK with Joe. Our own photo above, a bit out of focus, but the love comes shining through. We were there amidst the horror -- brutally loud, relentless music that made us want to kill and maim -- and wonder -- a roomful of rich and poor, elegant and dowdy, happy, happy people. The security presence was nearly undetectable. Maybe it's a Connecticut thing. Pamela and ourselves, members of the opposition that we are, were totally swept up into the buoyancy of the moment.

"With Democrats and Republicans jockeying for control of the closely divided Senate, both parties will need Lieberman's vote," asserts the Boston Globe:

Lieberman reiterated his pledge to remain with the Democrats, saying a prime consideration was maintaining his 18 years of seniority on Capitol Hill in order to help Connecticut.

Lieberman said he spoke by phone Wednesday with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who called to congratulate him. Reid assured him he will keep his seniority, Lieberman said.

Lieberman also said he has no interest in serving in the Bush administration. "I would reject any offer, which has not come, and, I believe, will not come," he said [Rummy's replacement is already out there, but who knows what GW & Company may be cooking up in their toil-and-trouble cauldron?]

The acolytes at Joey's victory party Tuesday night were filled with wonder and joy. We mingled with a phalanx of devout yellow-tee-shirt-clad union firemen (above) whose enthusiasm and sweet, all-American good will touched our heart, if not our mind.

When it comes to Joey Lieberman, he's one of the best, but a politician is a politician. This from his August 2000 acceptance speech as Al Gore's running mate:

For more than 20 years Al Gore has been a leader on the environment.

He and I will continue the work we have done together to keep our air, water and land clean. We are going to continue to work to make sure that a child can drink a glass of water, or a father can fish in a stream, or a family can go to a park, without having to worry that their health and safety is at risk.

Tell us another one. We hope Joey's had his fill of those glasses of snake-oil water served up by the wolf-criers of global warming and will be moving on to more pressing matters in his new, double-barreled position of power.

The view out our window at the Goodwin Hotel in Hartford on a rainy Wednesday morning yesterday as we awoke to a stark new political landscape and tried to come to terms with the election returns from Hell. The pollsters had gotten it right, Karl Rove and many of our friends on the right side of the aisle -- including our own hope-against-hope self -- had gotten it wrong. As Dubya told the White House Press Corps yesterday, the Republicans had taken a "thumpin'." Power corrupts, and it did. They bought their tickets. Us -- we? -- voters, unfortunately, went along for the ride: The Democrats didn't win so much as the Republicans lost. Yecky poo. But, as the song goes, "That's life." Time to pick ourselves up and get back in the race.

More toe-curling rhetoric from Senator Lieberman's Gore VP acceptance speech back in 2000:

Two weeks ago . . . our opponent claimed that America has a hollow military.

I must tell you, that made me angry.

America . . . we know better than that -- our fighting men and women are the best-trained, best-equipped, most potent fighting force in the history of the world, and they will stay that way when Al Gore and I are elected.

As depressed as the economy may be in Connecticut's capital city, their primo men's furnishings store, Stackpole Moore Tryon, is right up there with our own Louis of Boston. Tuck, above, poses for the camera but earlier picked out an awesome belt and unflappable umbrella for us to bestow upon him as belated birthday gifts.

As bad as things may seem now to so many of our fellow Americans, had Al Gore been elected, who knows? We'll have to admit we're wicked disappointed with the way GW has been jerking us around of late. We love and admire Donald "things we don't know we don't know" Rumsfeld with all our heart and soul and guess one of the pundits on one of the cable shows was right last night when he used the "s" word, scapegoat. Taking a fall for the team. We're pretty sure that history, that clear-eyed, take-no-prisoners taskmistress, will show Donald Rumsfeld to have been one of the towering figures of the early 21st century. We may not live to see it, but our grand nieces and nephews will. This just in from one of our favorite commenters, Gayle Miller of And you thought YOU were cranky?:

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if in fact Sec. Rumsfeld insisted on resigning as a final service to his President. That's the kind of guy he is and that's the kind of loyalty GWB inspires.

Whatever the causation, I am so going to miss Rummy -- his lack of patience with idiots (a lot of congresspeople and most of the press corps) and his unbelievable courage. Can you see any Clinton appointee running BACK INTO the burning Pentagon to save some of his people?

We adore Gayle's turn of phrase re Secretary Rumsfeld's "lack of patience with idiots." One of our all-time favorite Dick Cheney quotations in response to a clueless "reporter's" verbal assault comes to mind:

I disagree with the premise of your question.

Jesus himself gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not his face from shame and spitting. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Comments

[goomp]

I am sorry to say that Washington D.C. does not seem to be the shining city on a hill but a dismal abode in a swamp.

[LanceThruster]

Joe Lieberman has done his part in keeping D.C. a malodorous swamp. His thuggish tactics towards Lamont organizers and the still unaccounted for petty cash expenditures means business as usual for Shameless Joe Who Wouldn't Go. He kneels at the feet of the likes of the Brooks Brother's Riot who pegged him as "Sore Loserman". Who knew that that part of their contention was true? Politics makes strange bedfellows and I hope Joe can keep from getting or spreading any communicable diseases.

[Teresa]

Gee it seems Lance is full of invective for just about everyone. He must be a barrel of laughs to hang out with.

As for Joe, well, he is a liberal Dem with the one good thing in his armory if he keeps it, he's pro-American defense. So it's no surprise he would go back and hang with the Dems once he got back to DC.

Fortunately he's 1000 percent better than Lamont.

[Tara]

Lieberman is a man of principle. He has never tried to disguise he is a liberal.He says what he means and he means what he says and while I am on the politically opposite spectrum from Joe, I can appreciate decency when I see it.
I cannot say the same for the Democrats that abandoned him for Ned Lamont.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Joe Lieberman is a good man and so is Donald Rumsfeld. Both are the kind of men who stick with their convictions when they know they are right. I love your reports and the photography. Amazing.

[LanceThruster]

The NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) has concluded that we are NOT safer. Lieberman coddled the boy king and never missed an opportunity to stab fellow Democrats in the back. He enabled AWOL McFlighsuit to wage war on the cheap, without enough troops to do the job efficiently (or as it has come down to; at all), without a post-active combat plan, shortchanges those who are there whether by failing to provide the troops with the necessary gear to increase to odds of surviving intact (I mean...Hello! Cher finds ways to fund helmet liners for troops to reduce risk of brain injury), or by reducing benefits to those who *have* suffered severe injury as a result of serving their country.

He helped the man who doctored intelligence, created a situation where his buddies get rich no matter how badly the war effort is going (KBR - subsidiary of Halliburton provided water that was tainted by FECAL matter - i.e. sh1t!). They charged troops $40 for a six pack of Coke, $25 for a hamburger, made wounded hospitalized troops pay for their own meals, deducted the cost of missing gear on troops blown up (body armor and weaponry is apparently still the responsibility of an unconscious soldier or Marine still clinging to life).

Joe has, through his obsequiousness, perpetuated the bumblings of a dysfunctional administration. I held my nose when I voted for him in 2000, but I will never again trust the man. Joe is for Joe...that's all he ever will be. I honestly feel that the name "Lieberman" will enter the lexicon alongside "quisling". The sooner he changes parties the better. The Dem's do not need another 5th columnist shilling for someone else's agenda.

[goomp]

I wonder if all pols are sick puppies of a sort.

[Gayle Miller]

Ah, Lance, how can you even enjoy food with that much bile in your system?

Notice, if you will, the graciousness with which our President has treated the Democrats who for 6 years have hammered him with a level of vitriol unmatched since another great American president's administration (Abraham Lincoln - to be precise).

The thing, I think, that most riles the looney left (of which Lance is clearly a member) is that George W. Bush does not respond or even notice the filth spewed at him by the leftwing of the Democratic Party because he is a real man who is secure in his own skin. He knows who he is, he knows his limitations, and he knows his strengths. Unlike Bill Clinton, he does not need endless opinion polls to tell him in what direction he should be traveling or what he should be thinking. George W. Bush is AUTHENTIC in a way that neither Bill or Hillary Clinton will ever be.

I sincerely pity you, Lance. You are clearly a very frightened and unhappy human.

[LanceThruster]

Save your pity Gayle. Rational fear is an evolutionary survival mechanism. As far as happiness, I take it where I can find it. But that is not the same thing as living in a bubble that somehow allows you to turn a blind eye to all the horrors inflicted on others in search of your own comfort. GWB is an authentic sociopath. His actions establish that beyond question. His followers are sheep needing to feel good about themselves as they brutalize those more vulnerable. Joseph Heller defined his theme thusly: "Catch-22 means that people have the right to do to you anything that you cannot prevent them from doing to you."

[Sissy Willis]

Lance: Too distracted right now to respond. I'm still hoping to persuade you to have more faith in the good side of our human nature. In my view, you've got GW all wrong. :-)

[LanceThruster]

Sissy, thanks for the personal e-mail and the invite. If I was in Boston, I'd take you up on it. Just as I've seen no credible evidence of Bush's good nature, Pam of Atlas Shrugs has further revealed her true nature in calling for the deaths of State Dept diplomats. Where's DHS officers when you need them enforcing Patriot Act laws against domestic terrorism?

"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." ~ Lily Tomlin